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THE 



State Uniyeesittof Iowa 



IOWA CITY 




GRADUATE STUDY 



AN ADDRESS BY 



CARL EMIL SEASHORE 

DEAN OF THE GRADUATE COLLEGE 



BULLETIN OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 

I 
NEW SERIES NO. 11 JUNE 2. 1910> 



THE 

STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 

IOWA CITY 




GRADUATE STUDY 

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED TO THE STUDENTS 
IN THE COLLEGES OE IOWA IN 1909 

BY 

CARL EMIL SEASHORE 

DEAN OF THE GRADUATE COLLEGE OF 
THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 



PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY 
IOWA CITY IOWA 

19 10 



ISSUED TWENTY-ONE TIMES DURING THE ACADEMIC YEAR; MONTHLY FROM 

OCTOBER TO JANUARY, WEEKLY FROM FEBRUARY TO JUNE. APPLICATION 

MADE FOR ENTRY AS SECOND CLASS MAIL MATTER 



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GRADUATE STUDY 



The times are changing. Progress seems to be the normal 
condition. We accept the ocean liner, the express train, the 
electric kitchen, wireless telegraphy, scientific agriculture, po- 
litical readjustment, and the development and application of 
science and art in every field as a matter of fact. We are ac- 
customed to great advancements and expect them. 

Let me direct your attention to some aspects of the educa- 
tional progress which is going on in our midst at the present 
time. It is difficult to realize its magnitude because we are 
right in the whirl of it. It is difficult for us to see the woods 
for the trees. 

Among your acquaintances of the educated class in Iowa, 
the age of marriage has advanced by from three to six years 
within the present generation. Let us see why. 

A few years ago a graduate from high school was quali- 
fied to teach in the high school immediately upon graduation, 
and was then ready to settle down. A little later the high 
schools demanded that their teachers should have a two-years 
normal school training. This was gradually pushed to three, 
and at the present time there is a very strong sentiment in 
favor of requiring four years, or a complete college course, as 
a preparation for teaching in the high school. And not enough 
with that, but now comes the report by the Association of 
American State Universities in its attempt to define what shall 
constitute a standard University and says, among other things, 
^Hhat a standard University shall have as entrance require- 
ment the preparation from a four year high school in which 
all of the teachers are college graduates, or show evidence of an 
equivalent preparation. ' ^ And it is recommended that they 
should have the masters degree or its equivalent. 

And that is not unreasonable; yet it means an addition of 
five years to the preparation of a high school teacher above 
what it was when we were children. 

The girl who expects to marry the high school teacher has 



4 Graduate Study 

to wait ^VQ years longer than her mother did, and probably 
needs those ^vq years to prepare herself for her social position. 

Some of the ablest and most distinguished professors in 
our universities and colleges are men who have had nothing 
but a college preparation. Until quite recently a man who had 
graduated from the college could teach in the college and was 
ready to settle down in a learned community. Now a fresh 
bachelor of arts (who by the way is very much better prepared 
than his father was in his college) is not prepared for any- 
thing in the learned world higher than the high school. To 
enter a profession he has from two to four years in the pro- 
fessional school. To teach in the college, after this, he must 
have had from one to three years of graduate study, and to 
teach in the university, he must have produced something giv- 
ing evidence of his ability to be a leader in science, literature, 
or art. There is an increase, within our generation, of from 
one to ^\Q years in the preparation required for a teacher in 
the college or in the university, not counting the raising of the 
standard of the undergraduate course, which in itself amounts 
to from one to two years. 

The girl who is preparing to be a professor ^s wife must 
have the virtue of constancy if she has to wait faithfully all 
these years; but boys, do not worry; she will wait, because, to 
fill her position in the home, she needs a fairly corresponding 
time of preparation. 

Many of us can recall the time when Iowa was an open 
missionary field. The ministers led a life of sacrifice. Piety 
had not yet made acquaintance with learning. Things are 
changing. The leading denominations now require three years 
in the theological seminary, and this is based upon a four- 
years college course, which is based upon a four-years high 
school course. But not enough with that; the church of today 
is undergoing a greater transformation than that which took 
place at the time of the reformation. It does not seem so 
great to us because we are right in the current, and because it 
is a purely spiritual change. The church today is being re- 
organized on the basis of history, psychology, and sociology. 
The minister has to fight the devil with new weapons. He has 



Graduate Study 5 

to face and fashion the forces of freedom, intelligence and 
progress. The minister of the future will be, as the minister of 
a century ago was, the learned man of the community, but on 
an entirely different plane. 

Complimentary degrees are not going to be given so 
freely in the future as they have been in the past. To get 
the degree of doctor of divinity, doctor of literature, or doctor 
of philosophy, which the influential minister of the future 
must have the equivalent of, he must go to the fountains of 
learning and, after his high school, after his college, after his 
seminary course, settle down to work in history, psychology, 
sociology, and the science of religion. 

And his wife must be his complement in learning. They 
will not marry at the age of twenty-one. 

Many of the greatest lawyers and statesmen of our times 
had no high school course, or its equivalent, no college course, 
no professional school training. Prospective lawyers, how many 
of you are going to prepare for the presidency by splitting 
rails? Even Lincoln could not do it today. Six months in the 
office of the Justice of Peace represents the schooling of many 
of our able lawyers today. But now three years in the law 
school based upon the minimum of four years in the high 
school is required, and the ambitious man does not enter the 
law school until after he has completed a college course, and 
the man who aims to excel will not stop short of a few years 
of post graduate study after the law course. Today the cor- 
poration lawyer, e. g., must have expert and first hand knowl- 
edge of economic laws, social forces and institutional ideals. 
These he does not get in the law course. He may gather them 
through twenty years of rough and tumble experience, or he 
may get them in a systematic way through specialized research 
in graduate work. The same is true of the criminal lawyer and 
the constitutional lawyer. 

I have in mind as an illustration of this a man who grad- 
uated from one of the small colleges of this state. He came 
to the Graduate College in our University and studied phi- 
losophy and sociology before he went into the law school 
When he graduated from the law school, he was taken into the 



6 Graduate Study 

office of the best law firm in Boston and soon after was ap- 
pointed to professorship in the professional school at Harvard. 

The lawyer who is to have cultured and well informed 
clients must prepare to measure up with them in specialized 
knowledge and general information. This will take time. The 
prospective queen of his hearth must have patience and must 
keep busy for she needs every moment to prepare herself for 
the social station in life which he has marked out for her. 

Pew of the heads of our banks today have had high school 
or college training, not even a business course. Although to 
become a banker, it is necessary that even the richest and most 
learned men shall begin at the bottom and go through all the 
stages, there is a short cut to banking and that is through a 
specialized education for banking. There is a difference be- 
tween a clerk, or teller, and a banker. A banker is one who 
sits in the inner office and applies his knowledge of history, 
economics, social psychology, and other sciences, to the legiti- 
mate manipulation of funds. The business college gives no 
adequate preparation, the college does not qualify him for this, 
he must have a more advanced mastery of technique of his pro- 
fession. At Harvard there is a school of applied economics 
which requires a bachelor's degree for admission, and gives 
training in finance in the same way as a law school gives in- 
formation about law. Every University has within it now more 
or less of a nucleus for such a school. 

The licensed druggist today knows more about medicine 
than some of our best family doctors learned in their college 
days. Some of the physicians have gotten their training 
through two years at the patent medicine counter, and six 
months in an institution which conferred the degree of M. D. 
Now the physician must have a four year medical course and, 
even in the poorest medical schools, he must enter with a high 
school preparation. We now require two years of college study 
for entrance to the medical school in our University and in 
many places, a full college course is required. It is well known 
that the best men in every medical class are picked to go on 
in post graduate work as internes or assistants in the hospi- 
tals, or in the office of the specialist, and with this specializa- 



Graduate Study 7 

tion comes the craving for liberal culture and sound scientific 
training which may be obtained through mature study as 
graduates. 

This is the age of specialists. The college, and the four- 
years medical course, give no room for the specialization. The 
specialist must get both his specialized and his broad culture 
training after these courses. We demand that the man in 
whose hands we place our life shall have had the best oppor- 
tunities for acquiring his profession. 

It is hard for the girl at home to wait while he goes 
through college, and through the medical school, and takes his 
master's degree, and goes through the apprenticeship, and 
attends clinics in foreign countries; but her patience will be 
repaid. And if she is to be a mate to such a man she must 
keep busy every minute of the time that she is waiting. 

The principal characteristic of the manufacturer as we 
know him is enterprise. Competition, the application of science^ 
and the combinations of capital make it necessary that the 
manufacturer shall know the nicest details of the chemistry 
and physics of the process, the economic principles involved, 
even the laws of human nature, in order to manage his estab- 
lishment. Electrical, mechanical, and other indusries now em- 
ploy experts in all sorts of capacities in manufacture. That 
kind of knowledge which shall pay in application to the re- 
duction of ores, the manufacture of chemicals, the designing 
of machinery, etc., is not given in the undergraduate college. 
This is so true that we are accustomed to hear the manufac- 
turer say that he does not care for the college trained man. 
And he is right, for the college course is not an adequate prepa- 
ration, but the post-college, the mature student's investigations 
in the specialized laboratory, or in the field, can give just the 
specific preparation that the manufacturer wants, and in the 
near future will demand. 

Who thinks of learned qualifications for government posi- 
tions? We can scarcely think of the word government without 
thinking of the word graft, and yet government ofiice is not 
all a matter of pull. In Germany the mayor has a profession. 



8 Graduate Study 

He is a professional city mayor, i. e., he has taken extensive 
:Studies in history and theory of municipal government and law 
and has prepared himself for the office of mayor and may be 
-elected in any city in the same way as we elect the principal of 
•our schools. We shall soon learn from the successful experience 
of Germany in this respect. The civil service offices do not all 
go to the ward heelers. The examinations are growing more 
and more stringent for every government office. 

The professor of mathematics in our University informs 
-me that he could place a great many more mathematicians than 
•he has to recommend, as statisticians, etc., in government 
service. 

There is a bill in Congress at the present time to establish 
a national school for training of diplomats. The requirements 
upon the political servant are continually increasing and with 
this increase comes the development of facilities for his prepa- 
Tation. 

In all good government there is a ''power behind the 
throne.^' She does not pass any civil service examinations, 
but the practical, social test which she must pass before she 
is elected by the man who is to be prominent in public life 
IS even more severe. 

These illustrations may suffice to bear out my assertion 
that the times are changing, that in all the walks of life in 
this country there is a tremendous educational upheaval, and 
that it IS all in one direction, — the direction of increase in the 
requirements and unprecedented opportunities for a high prepa- 
ration for life. 

After this outlook, let us look in upon the personal situa- 
tion for a moment and make some observations. In the first 
place, you can not all be at the top. The pyramid of human 
achievement is like every other pyramid; it tapers toward the 
top and the top would be useless without the broad expanding 
-base and all intervening strata. 

We need teachers in all the grades from the lowest to the 
highest. We need college professors who are satisfied to teach 
and do not hang around heart-broken because they have no op- 



Graduate Study 9 

portunity to advance science. We need the preacher who is 
indeed a minister in humbler walks of life. We need lawyers 
for clerkships, justices of peace, and in many business capacities. 
We need physicians who can handle the plain cases and are 
conscientious enough to send the serious cases to the proper 
specialist. We need the small enterprising man in commerce, 
manufacture, and industries. We need the humble citizen in 
public affairs at home. 

But in all these lines we need a few at the top, and these 
we give special advantages, and hold responsible for greater 
results. 

In the second place, you will observe that the nobility of 
work and calling may be just as great at one plane in the 
pyramid as at another. The primary teacher may very well* 
carry her head as high as the college professor. She may right- 
ly regard her mission in the world as one well worth while. 
The question of the steward is always: ''How have you used 
the italents I entrusted to youf But it is also true that as 
your talents are, so is your personal opportunity for prefer- 
ment; and, as your talents are, so is your personal respon- 
sibility. 

In the third place, I think, to most of us, the high places 
seem distant and beyond reach. This is perfectly natural, and 
has its real advantages. (One disadvantage of that is, however, 
that you have great difficult in seeing the sense of what I am 
saying when I talk about that which lies beyond your present 
vision.) We are like the pioneer mountain climber. We may 
have vague notions of what lies ahead, but we cannot realize 
the full view until we gain new vantage grounds from which 
we look forward to the next higher and higher and higher. 

In my own personal experience, this was strikingly so. 
I took one year of a preparatory course to prepare for teach- 
ing my own country school. I took another year to prepare a 
little better. I took three more years to prepare for teaching 
in the city school. I took another year to prepare better. I 
took another year to prepare for teaching in college. I took 
another year to prepare better. I took another year to prepare 
for teaching in the University. I took two years to prepare 
better, and thus from the moment I left the plow to the time I 



10 



Graduate Study 



had finislied my fifth year as a graduate student in the Univer- 
sity, there had been a slow broadening of the horizon; for each 
year my horizon had grown wider and wider and the whole 
field more full of joy. It is for the joy of a broad vision 
that I am here today to bring you this message, to cheer you 
on up to heights still undreamt of. 

The best is not too good for you. The forty-niners went 
to California by prairie schooners and on foot, in any way they 
could drag themselves over there. They got there and it was 
the boast of their life. But if you want to go to California, you 
would take an express train. We honor our fathers who 
walked then, but if any of us should walk today we would be 
considered tramps or fools. Just so in the preparation for 
life. The express train is your method of travel today. You 
have unprecedented opportunities for making great distances 
in short time and with comparative comfort. 



The express train of which I am speaking to you is grad- 
uate study. Let me tell you something about it. I am speak- 
ing about graduate study in general, not merely of the insti- 
tution I represent. To be brief I shall simply enumerate some 
characteristics as I see them. 

(1) Graduate study in this country is new. Harvard Col- 
lege and Yale College were changed into Harvard University 
and Yale University only a few decades ago. The present 
decade will go into history as the period of organization of 
graduate schools in the state universities. Our graduate college 
is only in its tenth year. Advanced studies have had a gradual 
growth from the early foundation of our universities, but, until 
of late, it remained largely individual enterprise among certain 
professors. 

Although graduate study in this country is no older than 
the present generation, it is one of the most significant features 
of the extraordinary expansion which is now going on in sci- 
ence, literature, art, and industry. 

The Graduate College is no more distant from the average 
citizen of Iowa today than the undergraduate college was to 
our fathers. Yet it is *so new that few of us know anything 
about its opportunities and significance. 



Graduate Study 11 

In 1818 George Bancroft, the historian, was sent to Ger- 
many as a graduate student from Harvard. He was probably 
the first graduate student from this country to receive a stipend 
and it is interesting to note that he profited by it; for, twenty 
years later, he sent a check for $20,000 to the treasurer of 
Harvard University saying that he considered this suitable 
payment for the encouragement Harvard had given him in 
graduate study. 

(2) Graduate study means research. Kesearch means ad- 
vanced investigations which carry our knowledge beyond pres- 
ent bounds. Graduate study is always liberal study, therefore 
its research is in science, art, or literature. Today research is 
the key to progress. Today research is the key to economy. 
Today research is the key to eflSciency in all human efforts, and 
research is the business of the Graduate College. 

The motto of the graduate student is zeal for research. 
We are accustomed to think of the man of science as a man 
without feeling. This is wrong. Edison goes into ecstasy 
over his triumphs and so does every man who makes real 
achievement in his pioneer work. The life of the scholar is a 
life of high pitched well-balanced enthusiasm. 

(3) Graduate study begins after college. Many of the 
students who enter the Graduate College are not prepared for 
research. They may spend a year or two in orientating them- 
selves within the field which they are about to investigate. The 
best preparation for graduate study in any subject is a broad 
college course in which science, literature, and art have been 
surveyed in a broad and sympathetic way. The attempt at re- 
search or high specialization within the college course is a farce. 

(4) Graduate work is expensive to the institution. The 
Graduate College represents all the university equipment for 
advanced study and instruction in all the colleges of the uni- 
versity in so far as it is above the undergraduate or the strictly 
professional grade. It is therefore the most expensive. The 
laboratory apparatus used by a single research student may cost 
as much as the apparatus for the use of the whole class in 
an undergraduate course. The undergraduates are taught in 
large classes while the advanced students meet in small groups 
or work with the instructor individually. One instructor can 



12 Graduate Study 

handle only a small number of students. In advanced courses 
which are highly specialized, the instructor cannot carry more 
than half as many hours as if he were giving only set under- 
graduate courses. The man who is capable of being a leader 
in his field of work, as the guide in research must be, usually 
commands double the salary of an undergraduate instructor. 
Much of his time must be spent in productive work — experi- 
menting, writing, etc. Promoters of learning are founding fel- 
lowships ranging in value from $100 to $2500 a year in sti- 
pends for the encouragement of advanced students. Most uni- 
versities give free tuition. The aim of the Graduate College is 
to discover and develop ''the exceptional man.'' It is also its 
business to discourage and suppress the unpromising candidate. 

On the whole, the research student costs a university from 
^\e to twenty times as much as an undergraduate or a profes- 
sional student per year. Yet in the long run he gives the uni- 
versity more than proportional returns. 

The expense of graduate students sounds incredible. To 
take a specific case, as nearly as I can estimate it, I myself 
cost Yale University $900 a year for each of the last two years 
I was a graduate student there. The fellowships and scholar- 
ships which we give to graduate students do not at all repre- 
sent the financial advantages given. 

(5) Graduate study is practical. We used to think of 
the scientific investigator as a recluse or a wizard far aloof 
from the ordinary affairs of life, but now he is in the public 
eye, the effective, well-known, well-paid, public servant, 
modeled after an Edison, a Burbank, or a Pasteur. Graduate 
study is now a proper preparation for all higher walks of life. 
It makes teaching a profession; it brings science into medicine; 
it broadens the specialized professions; it strengthens the pul- 
pit; it organizes industry; it lays the foundations for inven- 
tion and commercial production; it makes knowledge of human 
society the basis of government and public administration; it 
guides in the development of natural resources; it enriches 
literature ; and it furnishes the highest opportunities for liberal 
culture. This is achieved through the pursuit of liberal studies 
and the advancement of science as such. 

(6) Graduate study is farsighted. This is its chief merit 



Graduate Study 



13 



and distinguishing characteristic. The advanced student does 
not address himself directly to invention, manufacture, and the 
practice of art or profession, but gives himself to the study of 
fundamental principles which will be of service in his life 
work. In his enthusiasm, he is even in danger of taking the 
motto, * ^ Truth for truth 's sake. ' ' His work must be funda- 
mental. If the investigator, who gave Marconi the principles 
of wireless telegraphy, had aimed directly at saving ships at 
sea, he would probably have failed; but he devoted himself 
to the mastery of an abstract principle and laid a large foun- 
dation. Countless achievements may be built upon this founda- 
tion. 

(7) Graduate study stands for liberal culture. It is truth 
that sets us free; but, to free us, it must be just the truth 
we need. Culture in itself is no worthy aim. We must test 
culture by personal worth, by purpose in life, by service, by 
the ability to put oneself in the place of another. A genuine 
student does not merely ^'work for the Ph. D.'^ He has a 
radically different aim. The degree is an incident. 

We used to think that Latin and Greek were the marks of 
liberal culture. We now think that science and arts may also 
just as fairly be called liberal. We speak now of a college 
course in liberal arts and consider it a liberal course. If you 
have not yet discovered it, you may live to see that a college 
course will be regarded as simply a preparatory course, the 
foundation for liberal culture. The liberal feature comes after 
the college course. 



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